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Religion
Religion on Mournma is as varied as it is on Earth: every culture has its own beliefs, religion, philosophy, or system. Each culture has its cults, its secret societies. Some are monotheistic, others polytheistic. Here will be listed only a small handful of those systems which can be found on Mournma, as well as the cultural association it comes with. Helism- ''Helias'' This religion, true to its name, originated in Helias some centuries ago. it involves the idea of angels (or Saints, as they are often referred as by traditional Helians), and once adopted the premise of a single God -- God the Mother. God The Mother, God The Father -- The Divergence of the God Idea When Helism was first brought to a name and a more systematic approach to it was beginning to be taken -- before the Gospel was written -- God was a woman. God was the Mother, not a mere Goddess, but the concept of a single deity itself. She was not only associated with the earth, but also with the heavens, and the Saints, her Messengers, served as a personified embodiment of only a few of God's countless aspects. Preists were female, chiefly, and civilization was mostly matriarchal, women being held in extremely high, holy regard, and men -- while important to creation -- being mostly servile and fulfilling the roles of hunters and gatherers. Men were not abused or looked down upon, and the gender issue was not one of balance as in many pagan systems, but true to a single Order of things, where women reflected God Herself better than men did. Men accepted this as a fact of everyday life, and there was little strife to be had. When there was trouble, it was not between genders: trouble was reserved for war, and not for petty differences such as masculine and feminine. This was known in Helias as the Golden Age, and soon it would fall to the Age of Silver when equality was being more widely addressed as an issue and the matriarchy began to sag a little. God was still the Mother, but there was now a question of whether or not there could possibly be a masculine figure in the Heavens -- for all the Saints were also feminine. After all, God created men, why should men not be included as important? Perhaps as important as females? The Age of Bronze came when men were officially regarded as equals. There were now Priests and Priestesses, and now God the Mother came with a male consort. Each was known as God the Mother, and God the Father, and they were regarded as inseparable, as one, two halves of one whole. Though the Age had fallen to Bronze, there was still prosperity, but there soon came an unrest as men started to seek even further aims. It was around this time that the Gospel was first written. The Age of Iron began when men rebelled outright against the women, and still continues to this day. Matriarchy turned to Patriarchy, and the Order of things fell apart. Women were killed, or enslaved, or simply set below men in social status. Men were more important than women, but they were also greedy, conniving, and hurtful. Over the course of this age, the Gospel was written and rewritten. Things in the current time period of Helias have since settled down, and while the religion has spread widely over many continents, it is still chiefly patriarchal. There are some all-female cults who wish to overthrow their male counterparts and restore things to the Golden Order, but things will never be the same: the women of those days were gentle, not vindictive, and only a gentle intent will return Helism to its former splendor. There are many who openly view God as the Mother, which is accepted -- but there are also just as many who, being less of a gentle nature and more of a controlling one, believe God is the Father. The Saints/Angels